The sad thing is, people are buying them at that price so the paranoia feeds itself!

Hitting the nail on the head

I remember when these things were around $250-$300. Then they shot up to around $450-$500 back in 2007-2008. Now $700++?
I don't get it, and I don't really see the appeal of them at any price over $400.

Yeah I got mine at $400, drug my feet when they were lower.
Your right about "don't see the appeal at a price over 400", most low end semi shotguns are in the 500-600 range, and these are based on those crappy AK guns.

"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem" Ronald Reagan

I don't think the hysteria was totally unfounded. The ATF did release that study with all the pictures of the evil converted S-12 with the MD-20 drum, and it's no secret that they would dearly love to ban the Saiga shotgun. They're in a bit of a regulatory bind because in the as-imported form, the Saiga meets any sporting use test you'd care to devise, and as long as 922r is complied with in converting, the most they could do would be to declare people's individual guns to be destructive devices, and due to the numbers of shotguns involved, that would be a clusterf%^& which they want nothing to do with.

The drums are an aftermarket accessory, and those can't be banned short of an act of Congress, because the current body of law just can't be stretched that far. At the same time, everybody knows what they really want to do, and none of us would really put it past them to try something even if it would be a reach, legally speaking. Then add inflation in general to the equation, plus the fact that the Russians have figured out that we will pay more than $299/each for them, and they alone control the supply. The panic seems to be settling down for now, but there may yet come a day when you'll wish you'd bought more of them at $800 each.